


Live Like You're Not Scared

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The Arms of Voltron [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Keith gets beat up, it was only a matter of time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 23:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10887471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: When Katie and Keith take a trip into town, naturally everything goes wrong.





	Live Like You're Not Scared

 

“Town day tomorrow!”

Keith barely looked up at his math tutor. “So?”

“So, we can leave the Garrison for a day!”

“And…”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I never have before.”

Katie sighed. “Don’t you do _anything_ fun?”

“The word “fun” is barely in my vocabulary.”

“Come on, Keith. Let your mind off of all this.” Katie waved her hand at his sparsely decorated room. “Just… come out of your hole for a little bit.”

“You’re one to talk. You barely leave your laptop in order to eat, do school and tutor me.”

“Isn’t… isn’t there anyone you want to visit? Family, or…”

Keith shook his head. “The only person I want to visit is traveling to Kerberos.”

Katie’s face softened. “Takeshi Shirogane?”

Keith nodded.

Katie’s eyes misted. “I miss my brother. And my dad. But they’ll be back soon.”

“Probably in a year.”

“That’s not _that_ long.” She sighed. “But it feels like forever.  I’m visiting my mom.” Her face brightened. “You should come! She’d _love_ to meet you!”

“I don’t know…”

“Come on. It’ll be fun.”

“No. I have stuff to catch up on.”

Katie huffed in exasperation “Fine.” She threw a pillow at him. “Be that way. You’ll regret it.”

“I’ll add it to the list.”

 

 

_Last call for the busses._

Keith looked up from his book. It wasn’t too late. He jumped up and ran for the exit.

 

 

“Katie! Katie, wait!” Katie looked up. They had reached town, and she was leaving the bus for her mom’s house. She could have _sworn_ she had heard Keith, but that was impossible. He’d made his position _quite_ clear. She saw her mother’s car, and her face broke into a grin. She ran towards it, ready to see her family again.

“Katie!” Keith shoved through the crowd, past a Cuban boy going to an older sibling, past a Hawaiian boy hugging his mom, trying to get to Katie before she… too late. She climbed into the car and it roared off.

“Katie,” he called, one last time, desperately. He sighed. It had been a stupid idea anyway. He was alone.

“Oof! Oh! Sorry, Keith!” Leah smiled brightly at him. “What’s wrong?”

“I just…” He gestured towards the car that was speeding away.

“Oh. Wanted to hang out with Katie? That’s okay. I know her address. You want to visit? Her mom is great, you should go.”

“You would help me?”

“Of course, dummy! That’s what friends are for!”

Friends. She thought of him as a… friend?

“Here. She pulled out her phone. “What’s your number? I’ll text it to you.”

“123-4567.”

She snorted. “Seriously?”

“What? It’s easy to remember!”

“I’ll give you that.” She typed furiously and Keith’s phone bleeped at him. “Okay! My dad’s here, so I’ll see you later!” She smiled again and left.

 

 

Keith was lost. Totally and utterly lost. There was absolutely no way he could find this place. He only had, maybe two hours left before he had to go back. Just then, he spotted Katie. She was going back to the busses, probably. His heart sank. No chance. He ran after her.

 

 

“Hey, sweetheart.” Katie was starting to regret her choice of walking back. Goodness knew that she needed the exercise, but she’d forgotten about the drunks that were out at this time.

“Hey, sweetheart, come and buy your buddy a drink.”

Katie wrenched her skirts out of his grasp. “Ugh. Leave me alone.” He grasped for her skirt again, and she kicked his hand away before running away. Unfortunately, she was not looking where she was going.

“Hey, sweetie,” a voice rasped, “Where are you going so fast?” Katie had run into a gang.

“Leave me alone.” Katie tried to keep the tremble out of her voice, but failed.

“Now, now, we asked a good question.” They advanced on her. “So, where are you going?”

“Get away from me!” She stumbled backwards, keeping her eyes on the men. She tripped and landed on her back, trying to continue, scooting along the ground, before turning and crawling away.

She heard the men laugh. “Oh, no. You’re coming with us, honey. You’ll be _fun_.”

Tears were streaming down her face now, and she knew trying to run would be fruitless.

“Hey! Leave her alone!” Someone jumped over Katie, facing the men. Katie turned around. Keith? What was he doing here?”

“Oh, are you a hero? Her knight in shining armor? Her to protect her?”

“Somebody has to when there are idiots in the world like you.”

Keith turned to her, smiling a little, but Katie could see the anger in his eyes, the burning hatred for these men. “I can handle this, Katie. Get out of here. Find Leah, or your mom, or someone.”

“Oh, how heroic.” The gang leader smirked and flipped open a knife.

“But…”

“Get out of here, Katie. NOW!”

Katie got up and stumbled away, looking back to see Keith turn and face the gang, who apparently thought that attacking Keith would be even more fun than catching her. She ran, ran and ran, back to the bus stop, running until she slammed into Leah.

“Katie? Katie, what’s wrong? Katie? Katie!”

Katie wrapped her arms around Leah’s waist and sobbed into her shirt.

“Katie!”

“Keith. Keith is in trouble. Help.”

Leah clutched Katie to her, letting her sob into the older girl’s shirt. She looked back at the streets with steely resolve. “Show me.”

 

 

 

“Keith? Keith! Where are you?” Katie was clutching Leah so tightly it was a surprise Leah hadn’t told her that she was cutting off blood circulation. But Leah seemed just as worried, and was clutching Katie just as hard.

“Keith?”

A low moan sounded from a nearby alleyway, and the two girls rushed towards the sound. Katie screamed.

Keith was lying, half concealed by a dumpster, covered in bruises and cuts. “K-Katie?”

“Oh, no, Keith!” Leah knelt beside him, Katie frozen in horror. What had they done? Her eyes filled with tears.

“Katie, help me!” Leah was struggling to hoist Keith up.

“My house,” Katie murmured. “My house is nearby. We can take him.” She put her shoulder under Keith’s arm and together they lifted him to his feet.

“Sorry,” Keith muttered, clearly delusional, “I… need… to… eat less, I guess.”

Leah let out a short laugh, clearly bordering mania. “I won’t nag you to get bigger anymore, that’s for sure.”

 

 

“Katie? How come you’re ba-” Katie’s mother let out a short scream. “Oh, goodness, what happened?!”

“Please, Mom, help.”

Her mom recovered from the shock and nodded shortly. “Get him inside and put him on the couch. I’ll be right back.” She opened the door wide and ran up the stairs, probably to her medical cabinet. Katie and Leah dragged Keith, who’d lost consciousness somewhere on the way, to her mom’s couch, laying him gently on the couch.

Katie gently brushed Keith’s bangs out of his face. She hadn’t had time to examine his injuries before, but she did now. His lip was split and his right eye was bruised and swollen. There was a nasty cut on his cheek, and a massive lump on his forehead, not to mention the other countless bruises and cuts covering his body.

“Oh, Keith,” she whispered.

Her mom came back down the stairs. “Leah, I’m going to need you to go back to the busses and tell them what happened. Tell them I’ll drive Katie back, and then you get on the busses.”

“I can-”

“I know you can help, but I need you to tell them, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Leah left, and Mrs. Holt turned back to Keith.

“Poor boy. Who is this?”

“It’s Keith. Remember, I told you about him?”

“So I suppose Leah will tell them I’m driving Keith back. What happened?” Mrs. Holt began to gently sponge the blood off of Keith’s face as Katie poured the story out.

“Well, I guess we owe him, don’t we? I think these cuts will heal on their own, but you should ask the nurse at the Garrison to make sure.” She poured some alcohol onto a cotton ball and started dabbing at the cuts. Keith whimpered in his sleep. “Shh. I know, I know. But we have to make sure it doesn’t get infected. Shh. You’re safe now.”

 

 

Keith felt like someone was pounding on the inside of his skull. His eyelids seemed stuck, and didn’t want to move. Someone was gently stroking his hair, and someone else was… bandaging him? He tried to force open his eyes and somehow succeeded. A woman who he supposed must be Mrs. Holt had just finished wrapping a bandage around a cut.

“Oh!” she smiled at him. “You’re awake!”

“Is… is Katie okay,” he rasped, “Is she safe?”

Something wrapped around his neck, and Keith tensed up for a moment, sure he was being attacked again before he realized it was Katie, hugging him. He also realized she’d been the one stroking his hair.

“I’m fine, thanks to you, you idiot. What were you _thinking_?!”

“Wasn’t. I was acting.”

“Either way, you are the biggest moron I’ve ever set my eyes on!” She sighed, leaning her head on his. “Thank you.” Keith would _never_ understand what made girls tick.

Mrs. Holt beamed at him. “Looks like you’re our lucky angel. Thank you for everything.”

“I was just… being a person.” He yawned. Geeze, he was tired. “Shiro… would… have… done… the… same.” He nestled onto the couch.

Mrs. Holt smiled gently. “You go to sleep, okay? And Keith? Shiro would be proud of you.”


End file.
